Job 1
Job and His Family
1 There was a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of perfect integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters. 3 His estate included 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man among all the people of the east.
4 His sons used to take turns having banquets at their homes. They would send an invitation to their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought: Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts. This was Job’s regular practice.

Satan’s First Test of Job
6 One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. 7 The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?”
“From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered Him, “and walking around on it.”

• 2 Cor 4:3-4 - And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,

4  in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.[1]
 
8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job?

• “Have you set your heart on?”[2]

No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”
9 Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Haven’t You placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out Your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”
12 “Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “everything he owns is in your power. However, you must not lay a hand on Job himself.” So Satan left the Lord’s presence.
13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and reported: “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing nearby, 15 the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
16 He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported: “A lightning storm struck from heaven. It burned up the sheep and the servants and devoured them, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
17 That messenger was still speaking when yet another came and reported: “The Chaldeans formed three bands, made a raid on the camels, and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
18 He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported: “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house. 19 Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people so that they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, 21 saying:
Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will leave this life.
The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away.
Praise the name of Yahweh.
22 Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything.
 
Satan’s Second Test of Job
2 One day the sons of God came again to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before the Lord. 2 The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?”
“From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered Him, “and walking around on it.”
3 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited Me against him, to destroy him without just cause.”
4 “Skin for skin!” Satan answered the Lord. “A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his life. 5 But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”
6 “Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “he is in your power; only spare his life.” 7 So Satan left the Lord’s presence and infected Job with terrible boils from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes.
9 His wife said to him, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!”
10 “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said.

• Faith is living without scheming. It is obeying God in spite of feelings, circumstances, or consequences, knowing that He is working out His perfect plan in His way and in His time.[3]

 Job’s Three Friends
11 Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home. They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. 12 When they looked from a distance, they could barely recognize him. They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him seven days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense.
 
 Job Replies to the Lord
42 Then Job replied to the Lord:
2 I know that You can do anything and no plan of Yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, “Who is this who conceals My counsel with ignorance?”
Surely I spoke about things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.
4 You said, “Listen now, and I will speak.
When I question you, you will inform Me.”
5 I had heard rumors about You,
but now my eyes have seen You.
6 Therefore I take back my words
and repent in dust and ashes.
7 After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about Me, as My servant Job has. 8 Now take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you. I will surely accept his prayer and not deal with you as your folly deserves. For you have not spoken the truth about Me, as My servant Job has.” 9 Then Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.
 
God Restores Job
10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his prosperity and doubled his previous possessions. 11 All his brothers, sisters, and former acquaintances came to his house and dined with him in his house. They sympathized with him and comforted him concerning all the adversity the Lord had brought on him. Each one gave him a qesitah and a gold earring.
12 So the Lord blessed the last part of Job’s life more than the first. He owned 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 He also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 He named his first daughter Jemimah, his second Keziah, and his third Keren-happuch. 15 No women as beautiful as Job’s daughters could be found in all the land, and their father granted them an inheritance with their brothers.
16 Job lived 140 years after this and saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 Then Job died, old and full of days.

[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (2 Co 4:3–4). LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[2] Alden, R. L. (1993). Job (Vol. 11, p. 54). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). Be Patient (Job 2:9–10). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

Coming soon...

1 Kings

• Chapter 11 – Solomon’s obsession w/ women
• Chapters 12-16 – Kingdom divides under Rehoboam & Israel/Judah decline
• Chapters 17-22 – Ministry of Elijah

2 Kings

• Chapters 1-3 – Ministry of Elijah
• Chapters 4-7 – Ministry of Elisha
• Chapters 8-23 – Divided Kingdom w/ Good & Evil Kings
• Chapters 24-25 – Last Kings & Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 586 BC

2 Chronicles

• Chapter 11 – Kingdom divides under Rehoboam & Israel/Judah decline
• Chapters 12-35 – Divided Kingdom w/ Good & Evil Kings
• Chapter 36 – Last Kings & Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 586 BC

 
The Division of the Kingdom.

• There was an old jealousy between the tribes of the north and south reaching as far back as the time of the Judges. The difference in their products tended to keep alive a rivalry between the tribes occupying them.
• During the time of Solomon the people had turned away from Jehovah and engaged in the idolatrous worship of other gods. This weakened them because of their jealousy.
• Solomon had put upon the people heavy burdens of taxation and of forced labor, which were fast taking away the people's liberties and reducing them to poverty. This policy inflamed the jealousy of the northern tribes into a bitter discontent. They would rebel rather than submit to the loss of their liberty which to them meant also disloyalty to God.
• The ambition of Jeroboam, of the tribe of Ephraim, a valiant officer of Solomon, no doubt led him to stir up the ten tribes to revolt. Ahijah, the prophet, had made known to him that, upon the death of Solomon, he should become the head of these tribes.
• The final and immediate cause was the foolish course of Rehoboam. He went to Shechem to be accepted as king by the northern tribes. They demanded that he should relieve them of the heavy burdens laid on them by Solomon. The older and more experienced men counseled him to grant their request, but he heeded the advice of the young men, who were ignorant of conditions, and answered them with a threat of even severer burdens. Incensed by this foolish threat, the ten tribes revolted and enthroned Jeroboam as their king and the division of the empire was accomplished. This was the turning point of the nation. It was the undoing of all that had been accomplished by the three kings that had proceeded.

 
Comparison of the Two Kingdoms
Each kingdom had its advantages and its disadvantages.

• The Northern Kingdom, from the material point of view, was far superior to the southern. It had a larger and more fertile country. It had three times as many people and a much better military equipment. The kings were inferior and wicked. Not a single one of the nineteen kings were godly. They established idolatrous and abominable worship as a religion of the king. This idolatry counterbalanced all the material advantages.
• The Southern Kingdom was far superior from a spiritual point of view. It possessed the religious capital of the nation with the temple as a center of Jehovah worship. True it had only one third as many people, one half as much territory and that less fertile, and an inferior military equipment, but its superior spiritual power and its superior line of kings made it last 135 years longer than the northern kingdom.

 
The Kings of the Northern Kingdom (Israel).

• 1. Jeroboam, 1 K.12:20-14:20. Reigned 22 years and died.
• 2. Nadab, 1 K.15:25-27. Reigned 2 years and was slain.
• 3. Baasha, 1 K.15;27-16:6. Reigned 24 years and died.
• 4. Elah, 1 K.16;6-10. Reigned 2 years and was slain.
• 5. Zimri, 1 K.18:11-20. Reigned 7 days and suicided.
• 6. Omri, 1 K.16:31-28. Reigned 12 years and died.
• 7. Ahab, 1 K.16:29-22:40. Reigned 22 years and was slain in battle.
• 8. Ahaziah, 1 K.22:51-2 K.1:18. Reigned 2 years and died from an accident.
• 9. Jehoram, 2 K.3:1-9:24. Reigned 12 years and was slain.
• 10. Jehu, 2 K.9:1-10:36. Reigned 28 years and died.
• 11. Jehoahaz, 2 K.13:1-9. Reigned 17 years and died.
• 12. Jehoash, 2 K.13:10-14:16. Reigned 16 years and died.
• 13. Jeroboam II, 2 K.14:23-29. Reigned 41 years and died.
• 14. Zechariah, 2 K.15:8-10. Reigned 6 months and was slain.
• 15. Shallum, 2 K.15:13-14. Reigned 1 month and was slain.
• 16. Menahem, 2 K.15:14-22. Reigned 10 years and died.
• 17. Pekahian, 2 K.15:23-26. Reigned 2 years and was slain.
• 18. Pekah, 2 K.15:27-16:9. Reigned 20 years and was slain.
• 19. Hoshea, 2 K.17:1-6. Reigned 9 years and put in prison.

 
The Kings of the Southern Kingdom (Judah).

• 1. Rehoboam, 1 K.12:21-24; 14:21-31; 2 Chron.11:1-12:16. Reigned 17 years and died.
• 2. Abijah, 1 K.15:1-8; 2 Chron.13:1-22. Reigned 3 years and died.
• 3. Asa, 1 K.15:9-24; 2 Chron.14:1-16:14. Reigned 41 years and died.
• 4. Jehoshaphat, 1 K.13:24; 23:41-50; 2 K.3:1-27; 2 Chron.17:1-21:1 Reigned 25 years and died.
• 5. Jeboram, 2 K.8:16-24; 2 Chron.21:1-20. Reigned 8. years and died.
• 6. Ahaziah, 2 K.8:25-29; 9:27-29; 2 Chron.22:1-9. Reigned 1 year and was killed by order of Jehu.
• 7. Athaliah, 2 K.11:1-21:2; 2 Chron, 22;10-23:6. Reigned 6 years and was slain when Joash became king.
• 8. Joash, 2 K.11:3-12:21; 2 Chron.24:1-27. Reigned 40 years and was slain.
• 9. Amaziah, 2 K.14:1-20; 2 Chron.25:1-28. Reigned 29 years and was slain.
• 10. Uzziah or Azariah, 2 K.14:21-25; 2 Chron.28:1-23. Reigned 52 years and died.
• 11. Jotham, 2 K.15:32-36; 2 Chron.27:1-9. Reigned 18 years and died.
• 12. Ahaz, 2 K.16:1-30: 2 Chron.28:1-27. Reigned 15 years and died.
• 13. Hezekiah, 2 Kings 18-20.
• 14. Manasseh, 2 Kings 21.
• 15. Amon, 2 Kings 21.
• 16. Josiah, 2 Kings 21-23.
• 17. Johoahaz, 2 Kings 23.
• 18. Jehoiakim, 2 Kings 23.
• 19. Johoichin, 2 Kings 24.
• 20. Zedekiah, 2 Kings 24-25.

Important Events in the History of Israel.

• The establishment of idol worship at Dan and Bethel.
• The removal of the Capital, by Omri, from Tirzah to the hill site of Samaria.
• The wicked reign of Ahab, who introduced Baal worship into Israel.
• The reformations of Jehu, who swept Baal worship from the land and overthrew the hated dynasty of Omri.
• The successful reign of Jeroboam II, who brought the nation back to a state of prosperity that resembled the time of David and Solomon.
• The activity of the prophets during the entire period. Elijah, Elisha, -  Jonah, Amos and Hosea, who prophesied in the time of the reign of Jereboam II, and Micah.
• The conquest of Israel by the Assyrians which came as the result of forty years of constant decline following the death of Jeroboam II. After this Israel disappears from history. She had sinned away her opportunity.

 
Important Events in the History of Judah.

• The foolish answer of Rehoboam to the ten tribes which led to their revolt and the continual enmity of the northern and southern kingdoms that followed.
• The invasion of Judah by Shishak of Egypt, who greatly weakened the nation.
• The reign of Jehoshaphat whose judicial, military and educational or religious reforms introduce a new and good day in Judah and whose unhappy alliance with Ahab, led his son, who followed him as king to introduce idolatry into Judah, with all the evil of the reign of Jehoram, Ahaziah and Athaliah.
• The prosperous reign of Uzziah, who was contemporary with Jeroboam II of Israel.
• The Apostasy under Ahaz, who encouraged Baal worship and practiced great cruelty even on the members of his own family. The prophet Isaiah (chs.7-9) appeals to Ahaz and to the people to return to Jehovah.

 
The Relation between the Two Kingdoms.

• There was almost constant war for about sixty years. During this time the kings of Judah cherished the hope that they would regain their control over the ten tribes.
• There was a period of close alliance. This alliance was sealed by an intermarriage between the families of Ahab, king of Israel and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. The purpose seems to have been that they might better resist the encroaching power of Assyria.
• There was a fresh manifestation of hatred. Jehu is enthroned in Israel and destroys the house of Ahab. This shatters the alliance between the two nations and causes a breach that is never healed. The northern kingdom becomes more and more idolatrous, suffers at the hands of the Syrians and is finally carried captive by the Assyrians in 722 B. C.

 
The Prophets of this Period.

• The prophets of this period are Jonah, Amos and Hosea.
  
  

Lessons of the Period.

• Jehovah rules not only in Israel but over all peoples.
• Each nation is responsible to God according to its opportunity and enlightenment.
• God judges people according to their acts, not according to religious creeds or ceremonies.
• Though a merciful God, Jehovah will and must finally punish willful and continuous evil doers.
• Sin is infidelity to God and brings pain to his heart.
• All punishment is administered to the end that the sinful may repent and be forgiven.
• Jehovah loves men and demands that they love him in return.
• Repentance is the only way of escape from doom.
• God seeks to save men and nations from the sins that are to destroy them.